Late rally comes up short as Grays shot down by Gunners

POCATELLO — The Gate City Grays are still trying to shake the rust of their traditional slow start, and have yet to win back-to-back games.

The Grays (4-10), who beat the Logan Royals on Saturday, struggled to get their offense going Thursday night at Halliwell Park, suffering a 6-3 loss to the Ogden Gunners (4-8).

Despite its slow start, however, manager Rhys Pope has high hopes for his squad this season.

“I think we’re on the right track, absolutely, we’ve just got to keep doing it … keep being process-driven and not result-driven,” Pope told EastIdahoSports.com after the game. “We’ve said it all year, that we want to be playing our best baseball going into the end of July and August, when it counts, and I think that we’re heading in that direction.”

Things got off to an ominous start for the Grays, when starter Xavier McGhee struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning spotting the Gunners with a quick 2-0 advantage.

McGhee eventually honed in and held the line through the top of the third, leading to the first of what would be just two Gate City rallies.

Thomas Anderson started things with two outs, drawing a walk off of Ogden starter Truman Duryea. Matt Azzarano followed with a double to left field, setting the stage for Tyler Vance.

The Grays shortstop crushed a fly ball to straight-away center, which narrowly evaded the glove of the Gunner center fielder. Vance ended up at third on what was ruled an error, knocking in a pair of runs and knotting things up.

McGhee couldn’t get the shutdown inning though, surrendering three runs in the top of the fourth and giving the lead right back to Ogden. When he exited, McGhee had not recorded in out in the fourth inning, having already seen two runs cross the plate with three more Ogden baserunners filling the infield.

With the bases loaded and no one out, Pope called to his bullpen for Kyler Spracklen.

Spracklen has found a role in the Gate City bullpen, as a human tourniquet — brought on to stop the bleeding and strand base runners.

The little right-hander walked the first man he faced, sending home one run, but then got a double play and an innocent groundout to end the threat.

“He’s a stud,” Pope said of Spracklen. “He’s been with me for five years now, and he’s one of those guys that I trust. … It can be early, it can be late in games, for Sprack, it doesn’t matter, he’s ready to rock.”

Spracklen — who doubles as an infielder — was lifted for a newer face at the start of the fifth.

Stetson Higley came on and went the rest of the way, holding the Gunners to four hits and one run in his 3 innings of work.

“He’s another one of those guys who goes in and just competes his freaking butt off,” Pope said of Higley. … “He wants to win as much as anybody and puts it all out on the line. That’s all you can ask for.”

While Higley was holding Ogden down, Duryea was an unsolvable puzzle for the Grays bats.

The hard-throwing lefty had allowed just three hits and two unearned runs heading into the seventh inning. But the Grays gave him one final test.

Brayden Pieper reached on an error to get things started. Then Bordy Burch drew a one-out walk, followed by an Anderson RBI single bringing the tying run to the plate. But Duryea struck out Azzarano, then won a laborious battle with Vance, coaxing a groundout to end the night.

The Grays are back at home Saturday, hosting a doubleheader with the Hyrum Hornets (9-3), with first pitch of game one scheduled for 6 p.m.